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Prosecutor says presidential recount rigged in Ohio county
Submitted by Deb on Fri, 01/19/2007 - 7:05pm.
By M.R. KROPKO
Associated Press Writer
for original article
CLEVELAND — Three elections workers in the state's most populous county conspired to avoid a more thorough recount of ballots in the 2004 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors during opening statements at their trial Thursday.
Witnesses testified that, two days before a planned recount, selected ballots were counted so the result would be determined.
"The evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless," Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said. "They did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount, he said.
Elections have fallen under greater scrutiny since the 2000 presidential election when recounts of paper ballots in Florida dragged on for weeks and the U.S. Supreme Court became involved.
Defense attorneys said in their opening statements that the workers in Cuyahoga County didn't do anything out of the ordinary.
"Nothing was hidden from the public," said Robert Rotatori, who represents Jacqueline Maiden, the county elections' board coordinator.
Charged with various counts each of election misconduct or interference are Maiden, who was the board's third-highest ranking employee when she was indicted last March; Rosie Grier, assistant manager of the board's ballot department; and Kathleen Dreamer, a ballot manager. The most serious charge faced by each is a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison, Baxter said.
Baxter made no claim about whether mishandling the recount could have affected the presidential election.
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Ohio law states that during a recount each county is supposed to randomly count at least 3 percent of its ballots by hand and by machine. If there are not discrepancies in those counts, the rest of the votes can be recounted by machine.
Sample precincts were to be selected randomly before witnesses.
Baxter said the case will show that the three county workers chose sample precincts for the Dec. 16, 2004, recount to ensure the tally sample matched a previous computer vote count, avoiding a lengthy hand recount of all ballots.
"This was a very hush operation," Baxter said.
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